For those of us who still love the magic of the festive season, fear not. Aside from a few sensational stories and WeChat policy-makers, a stroll down the streets of China appear as Christmasy as ever. Christmas trees that match China’s skyscrapers for architectural pizazz and neon brace the public plazas and shopping malls.

Online, smartphone screens are again filled with countless brands from Starbucks to H&M peddling their Christmas jeer, KOLs sharing their Christmas list ideas, kids showing off their advent calendars, and millions of Christmas paraphernalia bought from the ecommerce platforms, hopefully some of it in sustainable packaging.

For the vast majority of Chinese, Christmas isn’t a time to acknowledge newborns in mangers millennia ago. There remains little understanding of its religious or cultural associations, with most festival-thirsty consumers viewing it as an excuse to party and shop in the void between Singles’ Day and the Year of the Pig.

One thing we’ve noticed this year is how cities outside tier 1 are embracing Christmas. The China Skinny team has been crisscrossing the country on research projects and were out in Chengdu two weeks ago where they noticed more ceremony around Christmas than even in Shanghai this year. Most of the big hotels – Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Wanda, Kempinski – had a grandiose celebration for the ‘lighting of the tree’, complete with VIPs, children’s choirs, elaborate Santas, and a host of delicate Christmas-themed foods. In the ‘lower’ tier cities – like for many things – celebrating Christmas en scale is a more recent tradition than in Shanghai, and therefore more of a novelty.

This will be the last Skinny for 2018. Thanks for reading this year. To our clients and partners, thanks for working with us – you’re awesome! The Skinny team wishes you the Merriest of Yuletides, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years. We’ll be back again in 2019. Go to Page 2 to see this week’s China news and highlights.